One of the most difficult goals for business owners is to find, recruit, and hire the
right people who will assist them to be successful in their business. What they
should look for in potential employees can be confusing. The most important
characteristic business owners will want and need from their employees is

Why is Integrity so important?

Integrity of employees is critical because without it the business owner cannot count on receiving the results expected and promised. No matter how qualified, how experienced, or how skilled a person is, if they cannot be trusted they have
practically no value to the owner or the business. If a highly qualified
employee cannot be counted on to use their skills, knowledge, and experience to
perform and produce the results promised and paid for, then what good are they?
Business owners hire people to produce results. Owners get no value from
potential results.

What Specific types of Integrity do Owners Need from Employees?

Integrity is a word that has developed many different definitions and nuances. Business owners need their employees to embody and exhibit two components of integrity:

Integrity Component #1 – Responsibility

Employees will take full responsibility for all of their actions, by completing all
agreed upon or expected tasks, to achieve required results at or before the
expected times. Employees also will disclose immediately and fully to the
owners and all other affected parties any obstacles to success they encounter,
so that emergency actions can be taken to reverse and/or reduce the impact of
failure. This way, owners can count on the timely and full delivery of expected
results from all employees, and will have the confidence to know they will be
immediately alerted to possible delays or shortcomings, so that corrective
actions can be taken beforehand.

The principles of life that govern responsibility are:

• To agree to perform certain tasks and achieve expected results is basic.
• To  complete the tasks, and achieve the expected results within the agreed
       time creates reliance.
• To be interrupted by Acts of God is life.
• To inform those affected by these Acts of God rapidly and focus on creating
       positive solutions is exemplary, and creates bonding trust, which is
       required.
• Trust must be earned through repeated trustworthy actions.
• To violate one’s hard-earned trust, just once, is shameful and disastrous to
       all concerned, especially the violator, and is the strongest signal of
       one’s lack of integrity.
• The violation of someone’s trust will not be tolerated.
• Integrity is brought by the employee to the position, and cannot be created or  destroyed by the employer.

Integrity Component #2 – Honesty

Employees
will be completely honest and open with the owner, by immediately volunteering,
and freely reporting all negative reactions from clients, other employees, and
or people who have interacted with the employees. Employees will also provide
their reasons for their negative reactions and the full honest behavior
(without any omissions) by the employees prior to the negative reaction. The
purpose is to create possible solutions to convert the negative reactions into
positive bonding opportunities. Any withholding of information or delays in
admitting mistakes or of having possibly created negative responses is
considered a violation of trust.

The principles of life that govern Honesty:

• To
       err is human, which is life.
• To
       rapidly, fully admit, and explain one’s error shows integrity, which is
       required.
• To work
       honestly and earnestly towards overcoming the error is exemplary, and
       creates bonding trust, which is required.
• The
       violation of one’s trust will not be tolerated.
• Integrity
       is brought by the employee to the position, and cannot be created or
       destroyed by the employer.

Three common reasons owners fail at managing people

There are three very common reasons business owners fail at managing their people to success. They are listed in descending order.

• The
       most common reason business owners fail in managing people to success is
       that they do not hire and require all employees to have and practice both
       components of integrity.
• The
       second most important reason owners fail in managing people to success is
       that they do not properly acknowledge and reward employees that have and
       practice both forms of integrity.
• The
       third most common reason owners fail is that they allow employees who have
       violated a component of integrity to continue employment. Keeping untrustworthy
       employees poisons the barrel and creates a very unhealthy environment for
       the high integrity employees to thrive.

Conclusion

Everybody
talks about Integrity, but few people really understand what it is and how it
applies to the work place. Business owners are responsible for the success of
their business, and they want and need to surround themselves with people who
have and practice both components of Integrity described. Owners need to build
a smooth self-running team to produce the results of the business to generate
the income and profits desired. The entire team depends on the trust and
confidence of each team member performing as expected and promised. When just one team member becomes untrustworthy, the entire team suffers and ultimately, so does the business.

By Bill Dueease

President, The Coach Connection (http://www.findyourcoach.com